Name: What Happens To Old Broadway Costumes
Uploaded: 2018-08-20T08:16:29.000Z
Duration: 4 min 32 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

But some of the costumes used on stage can get a second act,

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thanks to a not-for-profit organization called the TDF Costume Collection.

We have a dress from "Wicked," worn by Elphaba,

as well as one of the "Mamma Mia!" jumpsuits.

the director of the collection, which is based in Astoria, Queens.

TDF accepts donations from various theatrical performances at the end of their run

and rents them back out to other performances for reuse.

We do approximately 1,000 productions a year,

both here in New York City as well as nationwide.

They have over 80,000 items in their collection

dresses, hats, gloves, and various other accessories.

A lot of times when a Broadway show will eventually close,

the costumes are usually retained for the tour or backup.

But every once in a while, a Broadway show will say,

"Okay, we're done with these clothes; you can have them."

when the Metropolitan Opera moved to Lincoln Center

TDF has since expanded, offering all sorts of items

donated from a variety of performances and individuals.

Recently, we received a rather large and very exciting donation.

Hollywood, Broadway fashion designer, Bob Mackie.

Some notable pieces Mackie donated were a dress

a dress worn by Julia Louis Dreyfuss at the 1997 Emmy awards

and an entire production of "The Best Little Whorehouse Goes Public."

When the original production of "Rent" finally closed,

all of the original costumes from the original

off-Broadway production, before it moved to Broadway.

We received many donations over the years

from "Mamma Mia!" when "Mamma Mia!" was on Broadway.

from a recent production of "She Loves Me,"

some costumes worn by Patti Lupone in the revival of "Gypsy."

you won't necessarily find something worn by big celebrities like Cher or Barbara Streisand.

Many celebrities actually wanna hold on to their costumes,

either to potentially open a museum or more likely

later on in life have some sort of celebrity auction.

Many amateur stage performances rent from TDF,

"Saturday Night Live," when they're filming,

depending on their season and their needs, is in here sometimes every week.

TDF costumes can be seen in this skit with Betty White.

"Now all we need is a dress and some proper shoes and a little womanly allure."

And this skit with Justin Timberlake as Mozart.

that were rented here from the TDF Costume Collection.

The only type of rental that we really don't do is Halloween.

Our costumes are really not Halloween-worthy.

where there is any food or beverage involved.

Anyone can go in and explore the collection.

you have to fill out some paperwork first.

They have mannequins you can use to check sizes

and dressing rooms you can book in advance.

with number of weeks of performances and how large your theater is.

You also have to pay to have the costumes dry cleaned before returning them.

Stephen says they have a green strategy in place

to make sure all the items get as much use as possible.

Once an item gets too ragged, it's moved to a special area,

where these types of items are in demand.

So for productions like "Les Mis" or "Urinetown,"

these are costumes that need to not look so great.

they open up the warehouse for a special bag sale.

and whatever you can shove into that bag and take out the door is yours.

So no matter what condition a costume is in,

there's always a chance at an encore performance.

Nothing changes, they're just kind of like, "Eh."

and it brings out a whole other personality or two.

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What Happens To Old Broadway Costumes

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